U.s. Man Kidnapped In Iraq Is An Indiana Subcontractor

Bomb Blasts Kill 16 Iraqis

1 Soldier Dies

April 14, 2005|By Solomon Moore Los Angeles Times and Information from The New York Times was used to supplement this report.

BAGHDAD — A kidnapped subcontractor from Indiana was identified Wednesday after he was shown on Arab satellite television pleading for his life, on a day when bomb blasts killed 16 Iraqis.

Al-Jazeera news channel broadcast a videotape of a man that U.S. officials confirmed was Jeffrey Ake, 47, of La Porte, Ind., sitting between three armed and masked men. Ake, chief executive of a water-bottling-machinery manufacturer, was kidnapped Tuesday while visiting a factory in northern Baghdad, said a source familiar with the incident.

In one hand, Ake held up what appeared to be a U.S. passport, and in the other, an ID card. According to the television announcer, he asked U.S. officials to save his life by withdrawing troops from Iraq.

Al-Jazeera summarized his statement but did not broadcast any audio from his appearance, The New York Times reported, and it quoted him as calling for the U.S. government to "enter a dialogue with the Iraqi resistance" and leave Iraq quickly.

A U.S. diplomat in Iraq told The New York Times that before the tape was released, U.S. officials in Baghdad had been approached by between six and 12 Iraqis claiming to speak for insurgent factions, but that the officials had told them to speak to the Iraqi government instead.

Ake's entreaty came on a day when explosions rocked the cities of Kirkuk and Baghdad.

Iraqis guarding a Kirkuk oil pipeline were attempting to defuse a bomb when an explosion killed at least 11 members of the Facilities Protection Service. Dr. Mohammed Bakir of Kirkuk General Hospital reported that eight others were wounded in the blast.

"After we were sure that we had defused the bomb that was planted under the pipe in the Bajawan district, most of the FPS members gathered to celebrate," said a guard who was wounded in the blast. "Some of us even started to dance. But then a mistake occurred when our explosive expert did not know what cord to cut. That's when the bomb exploded."

In Baghdad, a suicide attacker killed five Iraqis and wounded four U.S. contract workers when he drove his car into a U.S. convoy traveling the city's airport road, Baghdad's most dangerous thoroughfare. Another bomb in eastern Baghdad destroyed a U.S. fuel tanker truck, sending a plume of smoke into the sky. No one was killed in that assault, said fire rescuer Hussein Jadooh.

The Department of Defense announced that a U.S. soldier was killed Tuesday during a gun battle in the western city of Ramadi. The soldier's name was withheld pending notification of family.

Wednesday's violence followed optimistic statements from Iraqi security officials earlier in the day. In the morning, the Iraqi government touted its success against insurgents' bombs, saying Iraqi security forces had defused 74 percent of the explosive devices targeting them. The government did not explain how that figure was calculated.

Also, Iraqi army Gen. Faisal Qassum Qussai appeared on an news broadcast promising to solve Baghdad's security situation within a month.

New details emerged Wednesday about the kidnapping of Ake a day earlier.

The businessman was a subcontractor for a Swiss water-purification company and had been visiting a bottling plant in a northern Baghdad suburb, according to a source who requested anonymity.

"He was on site Monday and two cars pull up, eight hooded men carrying heavy rifles emerged from the car, quickly overwhelmed his security -- which was less than robust -- found him, grabbed him, threw him in the car and sped off, " the source said.

The video shows three of the kidnappers standing over Ake, seated behind a desk. He is holding up what appears to be his passport in his left hand and a picture of his family in his right. There are two soda cans on the desk and one of the kidnappers is wearing a bullet strap across his neck.

The group is called the Iraqi National Resistance, the source said. A U.S. official said, "We just don't know what the motive is, whether it is political or monetary."

In Washington, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said, "Obviously, the United States continues to hold to a policy that we do not negotiate with terrorists. It only encourages them."

The Los Angeles Times is a Tribune Co. newspaper. Information from The New York Times was used to supplement this report.